It is so funny how things come about. I was with good friend
Eileen Hull last week and she mentioned the upcoming 'suitcase' project for the
Fresh Vintage bloghop. I had participated the previous week and was not planning on going another round of hopping but since my new book,
Love to Dress Up 18" Dolls, was just released and would be the perfect fit for the suitcase, I thought it was a wonderful fit. I decided to dress my doll in the Outdoor Explorer outfit which went perfectly with some Monarch butterfly fabric I already owned in my stash.
Here is how I created my suitcase so full of butterflies, that some seem to be escaping.
Remove paper backing from the fusible web and cover a piece of matboard with the fabric.
Create the magic sandwich: cutting board-die-fabric covered matboard-cutting board. Slide the entire sandwich through the
Sizzix machine.
I colored the edges and inside of my suitcase using my
Mepxy markers.
I added brads to the corners and a 'lock' shaped brad to the front of the suitcase.
Using the project photo as a guide, create your suitcase.
Use leftovers to create a mini luggage tag, adding some embroidery thread as the hanging loop.
Create wire coils and attach them to the back of the butterflies, attaching the opposite end inside the suitcase using foam tape.
What fun!
Be sure to click on the Hop Forward button on the Fresh Vintage logo at the side of my blog page. Thanks for stopping by.
Recently I was asked to teach a 1/2 hour class to the ladies at our Northern Virginia American Sewing Guild's annual meeting. I decided my foray into doodling might make a good class and hopefully the ladies would enjoy something different although still sewing related yet very different from traditional sewing based classes. We had a total of 81 ladies sign up for the event. The photo above is the project.
Why you might ask did I call it Urban Doodles...well I probably should have called in Suburban Doodles but that just sounded a little strange at the time. My good friend, Cyndi Hansen designed the logo for me and I love it.... Here I am just getting started.
I showed the project photo and the ladies could be heard collectively saying, I can't draw or doodle what am I supposed to do with this. I reassured them - and moved on with the basics. My wonderful helpers from my local Sew n' Sews group handed out cardboard templates of sewing machines and dress forms and we got started. The ladies traced their choice of outlines and I showed them how to outline the image and then divide it into sections using a ribbon like line.
Here are a couple of examples of pattern fills that a couple of the ladies chose for their design. I started getting a little worried as the room was so darn quiet I thought I had bored them to death. No, I was okay they were all concentrating on their work. I was awed by what I saw. These ladies apparently can draw.
Now this one is fun. The fabric piece underneath the drawn design is an example of doodling with fabric. Whether hand stitched, sewn by machine or simply fused to a backing fabric this is real fun! 
